Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is well aware of the threat Christian Benteke poses – after all it was he who sold him to Crystal Palace – but has warned his players they cannot concentrate their focus on the big man.

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“You have to avoid passes in this area but not only for him; if you only concentrate on Christian then (Wilfried) Zaha, (Andros) Townsend are around you.

“They have one of the best offensive lines in the Premier League and we respect this.”

While Benteke has done much to ease Palace’s relegation worries, there is an argument defender Mamadou Sakho’s arrival on loan from Liverpool in January has done more.

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The France international, who has helped Palace keep four clean sheets in seven matches – from which they have taken 16 points and beaten Chelsea and Arsenal – will be ineligible against his parent club and that gives them a problem.

Sakho fell out of favour with Klopp after a number of incidents which began with him failing a drugs test in April – later quashed on a technicality – and ended with him being sent home from the club’s pre-season training camp in the United States because of his attitude.